List of Tamil people

Nobel Prize winners

• C. V. Raman, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1930
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1983
• Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2009

Fields Medal

• Akshay Venkatesh, Fields Medal in mathematics, 2018

Bharat Ratna

The Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian honour.

• C. V. Raman, first Asian Nobel Laureate to win prize in the science field, 1954
• C. Rajagopalachari, first Governor-General of India and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, 1954
• K. Kamaraj, freedom fighter and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, 1976
• A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, 11th and former President of India, 1997
• M. G. Ramachandran, film actor and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, 1988
• C. Subramaniam, for Public Affairs, 1998
• M. S. Subbulakshmi, first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna; first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award, 1998

Padma Vibhushan

The Padma Vibhushan is India's second highest civilian honour.

• Arcot Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar, for Medicine, 1963
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, for Science & Engineering, 1968
• K. V. Kalyana Sundaram, for Public Affairs, 1968
• Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar, for Civil Service, 1970
• T. Swaminathan, for Civil Service, 1973
• T. Balasaraswati, for Arts, 1977
• V. Arunachalam, for Literature & Education, 1990
• Raja Jesudoss Chelliah, for Public Affairs, 2007
• Balu Sankaran, for Medicine, 2007
• V. Krishnamurthy, for Civil Service, 2007
• Ilaiyaraaja, for Music, 2018

Padma Bhushan

The Padma Bhushan is India's third highest civilian honour.

• Sivaji Ganesan, 1984
• Kamal Haasan, Arts
• Ilaiyaraaja, veteran musician and Tamil music director
• A. R. Rahman, Oscar-winning Musician from Chennai; referred to as the Mozart of Madras
• Arogyaswami Paulraj, wireless technology pioneer
• Shiv Nadar, Indian industrialist and philanthropist
• Jayakanthan, author
• Muthulakshmi Reddy, Doctor, social reformer

Padma Shri

The Padma Shri is India's fourth highest civilian honour.

• Sivaji Ganesan (1966), Arts
• K. Balachander (1987), Arts
• Kamal Haasan (1990), Arts
• Vairamuthu (2003), Literature and Education
• B. Palaniappan (2006), Medicine
• Sivanthi Adithan (2008), Literature and Education
• Actor Vivek (2009), Arts
• Mecca Rafeeque Ahmed (2011), businessman and entrepreneur
• Prabhu Deva (2019), Arts

Ramon Magsaysay Award

The Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in 1957 in memory of Ramon Magsaysay, the late president of the Philippines. It is often considered to be Asia's Nobel Prize.

• M.S.Swaminathan, for Community Leadership, 1971
• M.S. Subbulakshmi, for classical carnatic genre, 1974
• Jockin Arputham, for Peace and International Understanding, 2000
• Palagummi Sainath, journalist, 2007
• Kulandei Francis, 2012
• T.M. Krishna, 2016

Dadasaheb Phalke Award

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India's highest award in cinema, given annually by the Government of India for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. It was instituted in 1969, the birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke, considered as the father of Indian cinema.

• Sivaji Ganesan, 1996
• K.Balachander, 2011

Param Vir Chakra

The Param Vir Chakra is India's highest military honor.

• Major Ramaswamy Parmeshwaran (1946–1987), awarded in 1987 (posthumous) for IPKF operations in Sri Lanka

Sahitya Akademi Award

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is India's highest sporting honour.

• Viswanathan Anand, for chess (1991–92); first recipient of the award
• Dhanraj Pillai
• Mariyappan Thangavelu

Jnanpith Award

• Akilan, Jnanpith Award, 1975
• Jayakanthan, Jnanpith Award, 2002

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award

• Vyjayanthimala, Sangeet Natak Akademi, 1982

Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship

• Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer
• Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar
• Papanasam R. Sivan
• V. Raghavan

Guinness World Records

• L. Athira Krishna, Guinness World Record holder
• Suresh Joachim, Canadian actor, producer, and multiple-Guinness World Record holder
• V.S. Kumar Anandan, his many records include swimming the Palk Strait, from Sri Lanka to India and back in 51 hours, in 1971
• Kutraleeswaran, swam across English Channel in 1994 when he was just 13 years old; the same year, he swam across six channels to break Mihir Sen's record of swimming across five channels in a calendar year
• Rajasekharan Parameswaran, Guinness World Records[3] holder.
• Aari Arujunan, Actor and Guinness World Record holder

Arjuna Award

The Arjuna Award was instituted in 1961 by the Government of India to recognize outstanding achievement in national sports.

• Kutraleeswaran, youngest Arjuna Award winner

Oscar awards

• A. R. Rahman, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2009
• Cottalango Leon, won the Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement "the design, engineering and continuous development"[a] of Sony Pictures Imageworks itView technology in 2016

Social anthropologists

• Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah

Academicians

• Arumugam Vijiaratnam, became the first Pro-Chancellor of Nanyang Technological University in 1992 and served until 2005
• Bala V. Balachandran, founder and dean of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, India; professor at Northwestern University
• V. L. Ethiraj, founder of Ethiraj College for Women
• Malcolm Adiseshiah (1910–1994), economist; former Deputy Director General of UNESCO; founder of MIDS (Madras Institute of Development Studies)
• V C Kulandaiswamy, educator and technologist; formerly Vice Chancellor of Anna University, IGNOU and Tamil Virtual University
• M. Varadarasan, winner of sahitya Academy Award; Ex-Vice Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University
• Prof Philip Jeyaretnam, professor of law; member of Public Service Commission
• Prof Sittampalam Shanmugaratnam, former Head of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the National University of Singapore
• Arjun Appadurai, contemporary social theorist; educator; founder of the School of International Relations, JNU, New Delhi
• Dr. H.S.S. Lawrence, educator; formerly Director of School Education, Tamil Nadu; UNESCO Expert to the Government of Afghanistan
• C.K. Prahalad, Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan
• Prof B.P. Sanjay, Vice-Chancellor of First Central University in Tamil Nadu at Tiruvaroor
• M. S. Ananth, Director of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
• Xavier Thaninayagam, known for setting up the International Association for Tamil Research (IATR) and organising the first World Tamil Conference
• Christie Jayaratnam Eliezer, appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
• Sanjay Subrahmanyam, awarded the Infosys Prize in the field of humanities (history) in 2012
• Indira Samarasekera, 12th and current president and vice-chancellor of the University of Alberta
• Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist known primarily for his work in the fields of behavioral neurology and visual psychophysics

Agriculture

• G. Nammalvar, Indian organic farming scientist
• M. S. Swaminathan, agricultural scientist and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee

Botanists

• Ganapathi Thanikaimoni (1938–1986)
• M.O.P. Iyengar
• Dr. C. Livingstone

Computer science

• Ramanathan V. Guha, known for his work on Cyc, Schema.org, Meta Content Framework, Resource Description Framework; developed the first version of RSS
• Madhu Sudan (1966–), professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; member of MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
• Hari Balakrishnan, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; member of MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
• Arogyaswami Paulraj (1944–), Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University; a pioneer of wireless smart antenna technology
• Shiva Ayyadurai
• Ravindran Kannan, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research India
• T. V. Raman
• Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google

Finance and economics

• Marti Subrahmanyam, professor at New York University (NYU); on board of directors of Infosys and ICICI
• Bala V. Balachandran, professor at the Kellogg School of Management
• Ravi Jagannathan, economist and professor at the Kellogg School of Management
• H.V.R. Iyengar, ex-Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (1957–1962)
• S. Jagannathan, ex-Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (1970–1975); executive at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• M. Narasimham, banker; ex-Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (1977); executive at the World Bank and IMF
• S. Venkitaramanan, ex-Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (1990–1992)
• K. Ramachandran, Director and CFO of Barclays Wealth, India (2008–)
• T.N. Srinivasan (1933–), economist; Samuel C. Park, Jr. Professor of Economics at Yale University
• Raghuram Rajan, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business, ex- Governor of Reserve Bank of India (2013-2016), Chief Economist, International Monetary Fund (IMF), (2003-2007)
• Sendhil Mullainathan, co-founder of Ideas-42
• Jomo Kwame Sundaram
• Ramon Navaratnam
• Raj Chetty, listed in 2008 by The Economist as one of the top eight young economists in the world
• Swaminathan Gurumurthy, Indian economist
• Arvind Subramanian, Indian Economist, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (2014-2018)
• Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Indian Economist, Associate Professor in Indian School of Business and current Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (2018-)

Law

• K. Sripavan, Chief Justice of Sri Lanka; former Deputy Solicitor General; judge and president of the Court of Appeal; Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka
• Rajesh Sreenivasan
• Karthy Govender, Commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission; law professor at the University of Natal
• K.S. Rajah, former Supreme Court Judge – Singapore
• Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; South African of Indian origin and Tamil descent; first non-white woman on the High Court of South Africa; has served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
• M. Patanjali Sastri, Second Chief Justice of India
• V. Bhashyam Aiyangar, lawyer and jurist
• A. Vaidyanatha Iyer(1890–1955), Tamil Indian activist; participated in the Indian independence movement and organized the temple entry movement in the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai; President of the Tamil Nadu Harijan Seva Sangh
• Mythili Raman, Tamil American lawyer; current acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division
• Sri Srinivasan, United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
• Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah, C. J. Koh Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore
• Malliha Wilson, Former Assistant Deputy Attorney General of the Government of Ontario

Mathematics

• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
• Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920), known for his contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions
• Swami Bharati Krishna Tirtha, known for his book Vedic Mathematics
• Ramachandran Balasubramanian, Indian number theorist; Director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai, India
• Subbayya Sivasankaranarayana Pillai (1901–1950), known for his work in number theory
• Kollagunta Gopalaiyer Ramanathan (1920–1992), known work in number theory
• Christie Jayaratnam Eliezer (1918–2001), mathematician and Tamil rights activist from Sri Lanka; recipient of the Order of Australia
• C. S. Seshadri, Director of the Chennai Mathematical Institute; Trieste awardee
• S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan, mathematician and fellow of the Royal Society, Abel Prize winner. Pioneer of LargeDeviations Theory.
• C. P. Ramanujam (1938–1974), worked on number theory and algebraic geometry
• T. S. Vijayaraghavan (1902–1955), worked on Pisot–Vijayaraghavan number
• Ravindran Kannan, Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics at Yale University; joint winner of the 1991 Fulkerson Prize in discrete mathematics for work on the volumes of convex bodies
• Kannan Soundararajan
• Conjeeveram Seshadri
• Ramaiyengar Sridharan
• Chidambaram Padmanabhan Ramanujam
• Srinivasacharya Raghavan
• Madabusi Santanam Raghunathan
• A. A. Krishnaswami Ayyangar, exponent of Vedic mathematics
• Mudumbai Seshachalu Narasimhan, mathematician and fellow of the Royal Society (1996)
• K. R. Parthasarathy, Professor Emeritus at the Indian Statistical Institute of New Delhi
• Ramaiyengar Sridharan, mathematician at Chennai Mathematical Institute; awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Mathematical Science
• Raman Parimala, known for her contributions to algebra
• S. Ramanan, works in algebraic geometry
• Kavita Ramanan, daughter of S. Ramanan. Mathematician at Brown University

Medicine

• Balamurali Ambati, world's youngest doctor at age 17[8]
• Rangaswamy Srinivasan, ultraviolet excimer laser / LASIK inventor at IBM Research
• V.S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist; Director Professor at UC San Diego
• S.S. Ratnam, pioneer in Singapore in-vitro fertilisation; Sri Lankan Tamil ancestry
• Ganapathi Thanikaimoni, palynologist at French Institute of Pondicherry; awarded the Fyson Prize in Natural Science
• Govindappa Venkataswamy, founder of Aravind Eye Hospital
• Ravi Iyengar, professor and founder of the Iyengar Laboratory, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• Gunamudian David Boaz, Indian Tamil psychologist
• Paul Kalanithi, Neurosurgeon
• Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of WHO
• Celine Gounder, is an American Tamil infectious disease physician, internist, epidemiologist, filmmaker, and medical journalist who specializes in infectious disease and global health[9]
• Raghavan Varadarajan , Molecular Biologist At Indian Institute Of Science, Bangalore
• V. Shanta, Cancer Specialist Head Of Adyar Cancer Institute

Engineering (scientists)

• Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, 1930 Nobel Prize Winner in physics
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, 1983 Nobel Prize Winner in physics
• Dr. K. Kasturirangan, former Chairman of ISRO; director of the National Institute of Advanced studies (NIAS)
• Raja Ramanna, former Chairman of Department of Atomic Energy; presided over India's first nuclear test in 1974
• Dr. P.K. Iyengar, former Chairman of Department of Atomic Energy
• M.R.Srinivasan, former Chairman of the Department of Atomic Energy
• R. Chidambaram, scientific adviser to the Prime Minister of India and ex-Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission
• S.R. Ranganathan, devised the five laws of library science
• A. Sivathanu Pillai, defence scientist; CEO of the Indo-Russian Brahmos company
• G. N. Ramachandran (1922–2001), made major contributions to biology and physics
• R. V. Perumal, former Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre
• Ramanuja Vijayaraghavan (1931–), physicist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
• Udaya Kumar, designer of the Indian rupee sign
• Vallampadugai Srinivasa Raghavan Arunachalam
• Poondi Kumaraswamy, only person to have received both the Homi Bhabha Fellowship 1967–69 and the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship 1975–77, two of the country's top research awards; hydrologist
• P.S.Krishnaprasad, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Maryland
• S. Somasegar, recipient of the Asian American Engineer of the Year Award
• S.Vanajah, the only woman among four finalists who outlasted 11,000 other Malaysians who applied for the astronaut selection process in 2003
• Ramamurti Shankar, John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics at Yale University
• B.C. Shekhar, modernised Malaysia's natural rubber industry
• Raman Sundrum, developed a class of models called the Randall-Sundrum models
• Siva Sivananthan, awarded the "Champion of Change" (Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Innovators category) by the White House

Zoologists

• Mahadeva Subramania Mani, entomologist

Athletics

• Mariyappan Thangavelu, winner of the gold medal in Paralympics, high jump
• Santhi Soundarajan, first World Peace Sports Festival Ambassador from India; first Tamil woman to win a medal at Asian Games
• Mani Jegathesan
• Sathish Sivalingam
• Gomathi Marimuthu, winner of the gold medal in Asian athletics championship

Carrom

• A. Maria Irudayam, world carrom champion and Arjuna Award winner for carrom (1996)
• R. Arokiaraj, carrom champion
• B. Radhakrishnan, carrom champion

Volleyball

• A. Palanisamy, first Arjuna Award winner for volleyball (1961)
• G.E. Sridharan, Arjuna Award winner
• Kumaran, played for Indian team and currently playing for IOB, Chennai
• Sivabalan, played for India and currently playing for IOB, Chennai

Chess

• Viswanathan Anand, world chess champion; first Indian to earn the title of Grandmaster
• Manuel Aaron, first Indian to earn the title of International Master
• Murugan Thiruchelvam, chess player from United Kingdom
• Krishnan Sasikiran, Grandmaster and Arjuna Award winner for chess (2002)
• S. Vijayalakshmi, six-time women's national champion of India; first woman Grandmaster from India; Arjuna Award winner for chess (2000)
• Aarthie Ramaswamy, woman Grandmaster and under-18 girls' world chess champion
• Baskaran Adhiban, chess Grandmaster from Tamil Nadu
• S.P. Sethuraman, chess Grandmaster from Tamil Nadu
• Srinath Narayanan, Chess Grandmaster From Tamil Nadu
• Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Chess Grandmaster From Tamil Nadu

Cricket

Football

• Peter Velappan (1935–), General Secretary of Asian Football Confederation; member of FIFA Strategic Studies Committee & Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup
• Peter Thangaraj (1938–2008), Olympion; Goalkeeper of Indian football team that won the gold medal at the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games
• Syed Sabir Pasha, represented Indian football team in the early 1990s; also played for and coached Indian Bank-Chennai
• Dharmalingam Kannan , Footballer From Hyderabad
• Dharmalingam Ethiraj , Jakarta Asiad Gold Medalist

Hockey

• Vasudevan Baskaran, captain of the Indian hockey team that won Olympic Gold in 1980 Moscow Olympics; Arjuna Award winner (1979–1980)
• Dhanraj Pillay (1968–), ex-Indian hockey team Captain, Arjuna Award winner (1995); winner of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award (1999–2000)
• Adam Sinclair, member of the Indian hockey team at the 2004 Athens Olympics

Mountain climbing

• M. Magendran, conquered the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest

Racing

• Narain Karthikeyan, Coimbatore, India's first Formula 1 driver
• Karun Chandhok, Formula 1 driver
• S. Karivardhan, car constructor and National Champion
• Naren Kumar, four time National Rally Champion
• Ajith Kumar, mechanic, F2 racer, Moto gp racer

Squash

• Nicol David, former world number 1
• Deepika Pallikal, Indian women Squash Champion
• Joshna Chinappa, Indian women Squash Champion

Tennis

• Vijay Amritraj, international champion and actor
• Anand Amritraj, international player
• Ashok Amritraj, international player
• Prakash Amritraj, international player
• Ramanathan Krishnan, international player
• Ramesh Krishnan, international player
• Nirupama Vaidyanathan, international player